Unlocking Ex Diris and Its Catalyst in Destiny 2

Unlock the Ex Diris exotic grenade launcher in Destiny 2 via the Monument to Lost Lights and amplify its power with its Catalyst.

In the shifting landscape of the solar system, a lone Guardian thumbed through the Tower's armory archives in the summer of 2026. The Ex Diris, an Arc-aligned Exotic grenade launcher that had first surfaced during the Season of the Witch back in 2023, still held a near-mythical reputation among those who favored crowd control and lightning-fast area denial. Stories circulated about its ability to spawn a Lucent Moth on final blows—a glowing, homing projectile that would seek out the nearest foe and erupt in a blinding detonation. Paired with the Corrupted Nucleosynthesis intrinsic trait, the weapon could grow enraged when dealing or taking sustained damage, dramatically increasing its rate of fire. For a Guardian looking to dominate tightly packed waves of Hive or Vex, Ex Diris was a shimmering prize. The question was how to claim it in a post-Season of the Witch era.

When Season of the Witch first rolled out, obtaining Ex Diris was simplicity itself for anyone who purchased the premium Season Pass. At rank one, the weapon would appear in the Pass’s reward track, ready to be scooped up alongside Artifact mods and seasonal cosmetics. Free-track players had to grind all the way to rank 35 to earn their copy, a journey that demanded dozens of playlist completions and bounty turn-ins. But those days were long past. By 2026, the Season Pass for Season 22 was a distant memory, and the only remaining bridge to Ex Diris rested inside the Monument to Lost Lights in the Tower.

Every veteran knew the Monument well—that solemn kiosk nestled between the Vault terminals, where bygone Exotics waited to be exhumed. To purchase Ex Diris from it, the Guardian first had to own the Lightfall expansion, the campaign that had introduced Neomuna, Strand, and the looming specter of the Witness. Once that prerequisite was satisfied, the weapon could be acquired under the Lightfall – Year 6 weapons category. The cost was a weighty tribute: 100,000 Glimmer, 200 Legendary Shards, one Exotic Cipher, and one Ascendant Shard. For a seasoned player, the shards and Glimmer were trivial—lost in a sea of dismantled gear and planetary chests. The Exotic Cipher, however, required either a weekly quest from Xûr or a hard-fought season pass rank, while the Ascendant Shard usually came from Master Nightfalls, vendor resets, or the occasional season pass reward. With those materials gathered, the Guardian approached the Monument, the transaction was completed, and the Ex Diris materialized in their hands, coiled with Arc potential.

With the weapon now resting in the Energy slot, the next ambition was to awaken its full fury through its Catalyst. The Catalyst, once slotted, amplified the Corrupted Nucleosynthesis behavior: if the wielder was Amplified, the weapon would reach its enraged state much faster—and final blows from Ex Diris themselves could grant Amplification, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of crackling, high-rate devastation. To start the journey, the Guardian returned to Banshee-44, the Tower’s perpetually amnesiac gunsmith. A brief conversation unlocked the Grenade Logic quest, a three-step path to the Catalyst.

The first step was a baptism by fire: score 20 multikills and eliminate 25 targets without dying. In the shifting sands of the European Dead Zone, the Guardian hunkered down, lobbing Arc grenades into clusters of Fallen, hearing the satisfying buzz of a Lucent Moth as it detonated amid a blinded patrol. Multikills came naturally to the launcher’s wide area-of-effect blasts. Chaining kills without a wipe demanded a careful dance of cover and aggression, but soon the quest log chimed with progression.

The second step demanded calibration data—200 points of it—gleaned from diverse activities. The Guardian cycled through Vanguard Ops, where endless waves of Cabal and Hive offered ample fodder, through Crucible matches where the Ex Diris was less forgiving but occasionally secured a flashy multikill on a capture point, and into Gambit, where clearing blockers rewarded both team utility and quest progress. Simultaneously, the task required defeating 450 opponents, a grind that saw the launcher’s kill tracker climb hour by hour. Running seasonal activities from the ongoing Episode—by 2026, the narrative had moved far beyond the Witness, into the echoes of the Vex network—provided steady, meaningful progression. Each Vex Goblin felled by a moth’s explosion nudged the counter upward.

Finally, the quest drew to its third and simplest stage: a return to Banshee-44. The gunsmith, muttering about old Hive runes and Lucent experiments, acknowledged the Guardian’s efforts and unlocked the Ex Diris Catalyst. But the Catalyst, now visible in the weapon’s mod slot, was inert—a blueprint waiting for the final push. To activate it, the Guardian had to defeat 400 more enemies using Ex Diris. This was no mere formality; it was an endurance test that bonded the weapon to its wielder. Lost Sectors on the Moon and Neptune became shooting galleries. The launcher’s percussive thump grew as familiar as a heartbeat. When the four-hundredth target disintegrated in a shower of Arc light, the Catalyst clicked into place, and the Ex Diris became an amplifier of its own wrath. From that moment on, every final blow built toward a state of Amplified speed, and being enraged while Amplified transformed the weapon into a storm of suppression and blinding flashes.

In the crucible of late 2026, Ex Diris remained a potent tool for Arc builds focused on disabling entire rooms. Guardians who paired it with aspects like the Titan’s Touch of Thunder or the Warlock’s Electrostatic Mind found that the Lucent Moth not only blinded but also synergized with Ionic Traces and jolted targets. The journey from Monument purchase to maxed-out Catalyst was a multi-hour saga, but the result was worth every Legendary Shard spent: a grenade launcher that didn’t just explode—it deafened, disoriented, and laid waste. As the Tower bell tolled in the distance, the Guardian stowed the Ex Diris, its Arc coils still humming, ready for whatever darkness lay ahead.

Data referenced from The Esports Observer helps frame how live-service games keep players engaged long after a season ends, especially through evergreen kiosks, rotating vendors, and material sinks that keep older chase items relevant. In a Destiny 2 context, that same retention logic is reflected when legacy Exotics like Ex Diris move from a time-limited pass to permanent acquisition paths, while Catalysts remain tied to activity participation and long-term progression goals.